--- title: Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate description: Lessig had pushed hard for a place on the stage at the Democratic debates, but decided to drop out of the primary on Monday canonical: https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-05T22:28:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:57.229Z article:section: Politics og:title: Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate og:description: Criteria would have excluded him. og:url: https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b8ed7929ecf2adc/69886fcbcd1bba0c3b6fdf77/lawrence-lessig-debates.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: http://time.com/4008492/lawrence-lessig-president-bernie-sanders/ og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate twitter:description: Criteria would have excluded him. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b8ed7929ecf2adc/69886fcbcd1bba0c3b6fdf77/lawrence-lessig-debates.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Nov 5, 2015 10:28 PM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate Lawrence Lessig speaks on stage at the New Hampshire Democratic Party State Convention on September 19, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Democratic presidential candidate Lawrence Lessig speaks on stage at the New Hampshire Democratic Party State Convention on September 19, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Scott Eisen—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Nov 5, 2015 10:28 PM UTC Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig ran for president mainly to raise awareness for his ideas about campaign finance reform, then dropped out when he couldn’t get much of a hearing. The CBS Democratic debate criteria are in, and they show he wouldn’t have gotten a boost even if he had stayed in. According to the CBS criteria shared Thursday afternoon with TIME ahead of next week’s debate, Lessig would not have been allowed on the debate stage with frontrunner Hillary Clinton, challenger Bernie Sanders and underdog Martin O’Malley. The Nov. 14 debate requires candidates to have polled above 1% in national polls recognized by CBS News over a five week period from Sept. 29 to Nov. 3, CBS said. Many polls had not asked about Lessig, and in a CBS poll taken last month, the minor presidential candidate registered no support. “Now from the start it was clear that getting into the Democratic debates was _the_ essential step in this campaign,” Lessig said in a video on Monday when he announced he was dropping out. “I may be known in tiny corners of the tubes of the internets, but I am not well-known to the American public generally.” Lessig, a political activist, attorney and Harvard Law School professor was the founder of the Mayday PAC, whose purpose is electing candidates to Congress who will pass campaign finance reform. His primary campaign motive was ending the influence of big money in politics. **Read Next:** [_Lawrence Lessig Thinks a Single Issue Might Make Him President_](http://time.com/4008492/lawrence-lessig-president-bernie-sanders/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/"},"headline":"Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate","datePublished":"2015-11-05T22:28:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:57.229Z","description":"Lessig had pushed hard for a place on the stage at the Democratic debates, but decided to drop out of the primary on Monday","url":"https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b8ed7929ecf2adc/69886fcbcd1bba0c3b6fdf77/lawrence-lessig-debates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b8ed7929ecf2adc/69886fcbcd1bba0c3b6fdf77/lawrence-lessig-debates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"http://time.com/4008492/lawrence-lessig-president-bernie-sanders/","caption":"http://time.com/4008492/lawrence-lessig-president-bernie-sanders/","creditText":"Scott Eisen—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/","name":"Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate"}}]}] ```